


Conviction

by daidoro



Series: Starshipstuck [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Additional pairings to come, Alternate Universe, Furthest Ring, Gen, Incipisphere, Multi, Prospitan Royal Navy, Rose/John - Freeform, Science Fiction, Starshipstuck, Tags, Tags Are Fun, The Veil, Too much shit to tag, tags are so great, wow it let me tag that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 15:38:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/838539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daidoro/pseuds/daidoro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For thousands of years, the colonies of Prospit and Derse have been locked in a stalemate for possesion of the planet Skaia. Four years ago, the conflict changed, the balance of power abruptly shifted, and the war was thrown into Dersian favor.<br/>Now, the Prospitan Royal Navy has been all but destroyed, and the Dersian Armada is preparing to finally begin its invasion of the Skaian system. The last fragment of resistance comes in the form of Captain John Egbert and his ship <i>Showtime.<i></i></i> While badly damaged in a previous engagement, the frigate managed to slip into the Medium and begin positioning to protect the now-defenseless Skaia. En route to the battlefield, he and his crew prepare for the assault of an overwhelming enemy force.<br/>And so, a small ship floats like a golden needle, waiting in the space between the absolute blackness of the incipisphere and Skaia’s breathtaking horizon.<br/>Waiting to die.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conviction

**Author's Note:**

> Hehe, here it is!  
> This is an AU-Science Fiction- thing. I tried to make everything as clear as I could, but there's definitely some stuff that will become clearer in later chapters!  
> If you have any questions, comments, or feedback about this work, please let me know! Also leave a comment? Let me know what you thought? I'd super appreciate it!  
> Anyway, I'll stop talking and let you enjoy this work. Thanks for taking the time to read all my rambling~

Your name is John Egbert.  
You want more than anything to turn your ship the hell around. Every moment you spend exchanging terse words with your crew on the comm, every accidental brush of the golden bulkheads on your skin, and every glance at the sensor array just makes you want to turn tail and run. Your years in the Academy don’t mean anything anymore, it seems. Every instinct you have as Captain is telling you to cut your losses, drop your ship out of the Medium, and do anything but stay on your current course.  
But then you remember your crew, and even though your heart feels like it’s being carved out of your chest when you think of dragging them into this hopeless fight, their faces upon learning their destination remind you of their conviction. You’re close as ever, and they knew your decision almost before you did. And still, you flinch away from the idea of conflict until your gaze is drawn from the blinking auspex screens, up to the spirograph engraving above the viewscreen, far to the bow and directly centered in the Captain’s vision.  
Skaia.  
You’ve heard your senior Captains speak of how, in moments of crisis, they looked to the spirograph emblem above the viewport. How it suddenly brought back memories of the Academy, seeing the massive planet burning like a blue sun in Prospit’s sky. How the thought of Skaia’s diamond-lit clarity emboldened them. Inspired them. Made them remember everything they were fighting for.  
Your name is John Egbert, and everything you’re fighting for is either on this ship or floating in realspace light-years behind you, dead with the Prospitan fleet.  
But you don’t turn your ship around.  
Suddenly desperate to get away from the spirograph, you claw out of your chair and practically fling yourself down the small flight of stairs to the transportalizer. You’re sure that if you stay much longer, your spontaneous hate will invade your fond thoughts of Skaia. Better that you leave, so the spirograph doesn’t become a symbol of your hate for the situation.  
As you reach the transportalizer, your hand rises up to the comm unit clipped to your ear.  
“Dave,” you force out, voice fragile and sharp as glass, “Talk to me.”  
After a moment, his familiar drawl emanates from the earpiece, slightly hazed by radio static.  
“Thought you’d never ask. What seems to be the problem, Your Majesty?”  
The golden bulkheads are momentarily whited out in a cascade of kaleidoscopic spiderweb cracks as reality deconstructs and reaffirms itself around you. Long since used to the disconcerting effects of transportalization, you don’t even pause your stride as you make your way through a maze of pipes toward the engine room.  
Neither do you cease your conversation with Dave Strider, your best friend and Senior Time Mechanic. When he’s not busy spewing awful raps through the comm channel, and scrawling shitty comics across the tile floor of the bridge, he’s by far the best specialist in his field you’ve ever met. Not that you’d inflate his ego by letting it slip.  
“Give me some good news,” you groan, forcing all thoughts but your situation from your mind. Honestly, sometimes it’s like someone else is giving you commands around here, rather than your own head.  
“The tech’s all up and hot on this end. I’m set to jet when Harley is.”  
“Jade?” You prompt.  
“I’m almost ready,” she responds after a moment, breathing heavily into the mic. “The subspace engines are still a little damaged, but we’re ready to rock and roll!” Her irrepressible cheerfulness almost brings a smile to your face, even now. But this is no time for sentimentality. It’s a time for action. Now or never.  
“Leave them,” you order quickly. “We’ll have enough time later. We drop in five.”  
“Yessir,” she barks happily.  
“Dave, make it happen,” you add, picking your way around a pressure door, deeper into the bowels of the underdeck. All frigates crewed a pair of Space and Time specialists, mostly to calibrate the ship’s drops in and out of the Medium, facilitating their travel across large distances. Dave and Jade had always been effecient partners, though they bickered a lot. When you’d picked Dave up from a backwater flight school on Prospit, you had worried that your longtime friend would be too antagonistic to match up well with Jade, but your worries turned out to be unfounded. Dave would tease her, but never to the point of actual needling or abuse. Jade’s agressive attitude, coupled with her natural enthusiasm, all but assured she’d never back down to Dave’s joking comments. Altogether, they enjoyed a friendly, if somewhat back-and-forth, partnership. You trust them inherently.  
Reaching the last pressure-sealed door, you hesitate, your hand hovering above the control slide. For the better part of an hour, you’ve done his best to put off this meeting. Every time your thoughts strayed, and you realized this could be the last time you saw her, your throat would clench and your stomach hurt and why was it so hard to breathe suddenly?  
After a minute, you vigorously shake your head, trying not to feel like you’d throw up, and steel yourself. Before you can procrastinate any longer, you tear the switch to the ‘open’ position and step into the Tactics bay.  
“What’s the situation, Rose?” You manage, your throat painfully choking in time to your heartache.  
She looks up from the computer console, and you remember what you’re fighting for.

**Author's Note:**

> Please don't hesitate to let me know what you thought, and super don't forget to leave a kudos or comment!  
> Tune in next time for more :D


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